The wait will soon come to an end: Game of Thrones Season 6!

In a nutshell: background information on Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is an American fantasy series produced by David Benioff and D. B.Weiss for the American television network HBO. The television series is based on A Song of Ice and Fire, a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin with five released volumes so far.

The story takes place in a fictional world similar to the European Middle Ages, on the continents of Westeros and Essos. Roughly speaking, it is about - as the title suggests - the power struggle among several noble houses for the Iron Throne. There are several plot lines, which are told in parallel, and there is an incredible number of characters which leads to a high complexity of the series.

The special thing about Game of Thrones is, among others, that not everything is simply black or white - the characters show very different moral shades. Additionally, the viewer has to expect everything from this series - very often, central characters come to a sudden death and even the most popular characters are not safe. HBO aired the first episode of the first season on April 17, 2011. Meanwhile, five seasons have aired, each consisting of ten episodes (with a runtime of 50-76 minutes per episode). The series won numerous awards and even broke a record in 2015: it won twelve Emmy Awards, including best drama, from its 24 nominations.

How does it continue? What we know about season 6

In addition to content from the fourth and fifth book of the series A Song of Ice and Fire, the 6th season will already show material from the upcoming sixth novel (The Winds of Winter). So, it is the first season of the series which is based on a not-yet-published book. George R. R. Martin, who originally had planned to have finished writing the sixth novel before season 6 airs, failed to meet his schedule, so that the series is going to spoil the book to some extent.

Filming locations

Filming for season six began on Ireland in July last year. Subsequently, filming took place in Spain where most of the locations of the upcoming season are said to be. Confirmed were, among others, the cities Girona and Peniscola.

New characters

We can also look forward to many exciting new characters (those who already had difficulties to keep track are going to struggle even more now ). Among others, the pirate Euron Graufreud (Pilou Asbæk) and Theon’s uncle, who is already known to the readers of GoT, will play a part. Additionally, in season 6, we will get to know Samwell Tarly’s family (Father Randyll: James Faulkner; Mother Melessa: Samantha Spiro; Sister Talla: Rebecca Benson; Brother Dickon: Freddie Stroma), which exiled him to the Night’s Watch. More characters surrounding the mother of dragons Daenerys will also be added. New Dothraki warriors (u.a. Khal Rhalko: Andrei Claude; Khal Jhaqo: Joe Naufahu; another Khal: Elie Haddad) are said to play a role, which can already be assumed by the advancing horde of Dothrakis at the end of the 5th season. In addition a Red Priestess by the name of Kinvara (Melanie Liburd) is to appear in Meereen - possibly, Melisandre will get some competition. Bran’s plot line, which was put on hold in Season 5, will continue and we can be excited because the three-eyed crow (Max von Sydow) which Bran often saw in his visions will finally be given a face.

Does Jon Snow survive?

The burning and much debated question is arguably whether there is still hope for Jon Snow, who, in the last scene of the season 5 finale, lay bleeding in the snow after being stabbed multiple times. Surviving the stab wounds seems rather unrealistic but maybe Melisandre, who was on her way to the Wall, can come to the rescue? It is pretty certain that Jon Snow is going to appear in the new season in any form since he is on HBO’s first official poster for season 6, and he was already spotted several times at the new filming locations.

And here is the trailer - with alugha multilingual in German and English: